In the 1890s, stage magicians were the world’s most popular entertainers. And then the cinema was invented. Always eager to incorporate new technologies, magicians quickly embraced the moving image, using it to create astonishing new illusions. Magician/filmmakers like Georges Méliès furthered cinema’s potential to make the impossible appear possible through their innovative use of editing and special effects in the genre they invented, the trick film. Unfortunately, as audiences fell in love with the movies, they abandoned the stage magicians, and the grand old magic halls disappeared or were converted to movie palaces.